Monday, April 30, 2012

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, one of the world’s preeminent
law firms, was established in New York’s Financial District in 1879. It has
played prominent – sometimes pioneering - roles in legal matters ranging from
railroads to derivatives. Today the firm has over 800 partners in 12 offices in
Asia, Australia, Europe, and the United States. S&C’s main About Us page is
here

OVERALL GRADE: A

Perhaps it’s those logical legal minds at S&C that make
this site so easy to use and so informative: whatever the reason, we are very
impressed. Quite frankly, the S&C site stands in stark contrast to
minimalist sites of a few other big firms, which show no personality and resemble
memos on white letterhead.

Products/Services: A

S&C’s overview is a beautifully concise statement,
opening with what they do and how long they’ve done it, then moving on to how
they recruit lawyers, who their clients are, and where the company’s offices
are. The sidebar menu is a well-organized list: Our Firm (Lawyers, Practices,
Regions, Offices), Careers, Alumni, News and Resources (Achievements, News,
Publications, Events & Speaking Engagements).

Kudos to whatever extremely intelligent person summarized S&C’s
130 years on the History
page. The narrative is focused on what matters to clients: the areas of
practice S&C pioneered in and excels in. But the narrative also relates
these events to world history, with mentions of S&C’s role in American
railroads, the Panama Canal, the Great Depression, and economic expansion after
World War II. This effortlessly shows S&C as a long-term player on the
world stage.

One of the impressive features of S&C’s About Us pages
is the fact that the News and Achievements sections are up
to the minute - or up to the week, at least. And not only are they current: every
news mention has a page with a summary, and an option to go to the full story
online or, for print articles, to download the article in PDF format – with
S&C branding. (Here’s
an example.)

One of the few pages that could use some tweaking is the Firm and
Lawyer Recognitions. We are impressed by the sheer multitude of awards, but
some logos, subheads, and/or links are needed to make that long, long flow of
text enticing to readers, and to make it easy to contact the lawyers who are
mentioned.

Personality: A

Sullivan & Cromwell’s Overview conveys a strong
corporate personality, but it’s very easy to go to a page about any partner,
and every one of those pages is full of very specific information. The lawyer’s
bio is followed by headings for selected cases, recognitions, and community
involvement. The sidebar has a brief summary of the lawyer’s specialties,
mentions in the news, upcoming engagements, education, and bar admissions. All
this wealth of information is laid out so it’s easy to sort through it.

We also like the Alumni Profiles page, which
offers brief looks at a few S&C partners who have gone on to prominent
positions elsewhere. The alumni offer very personal takes on the company, and
the very existence of the page implies that S&C is so well-established and
long-lived that it can afford to give web space to lawyers who are no longer
with the firm.

Accessibility: A

The Contact
Us page (accessible via a link in every footer) is the usual online form, followed
by a list of S&C offices and a contact name for those seeking other
information.

The feature that earned S&C an “A” for accessibility is
not on the contact page, but on the pages for individual lawyers. S&C
offers the option of adding a lawyer to your address book by downloading a
VCard, which you can then import to your address book. We haven’t seen this
option on any other site. We did not realize until we saw it here how very,
very tired we are of separately copying and pasting email, phone, and address
to our email address book. S&C may not be the first site to offer this, but
they’re the first we’ve seen, so they get the “big salad” thank-you.

TAKEAWAY

Sullivan & Cromwell’s site is a reminder that if you’ve
got great content that’s well organized, you don’t need high-tech bells and whistles.
The most memorable feature about these pages, though, is the level of
integration. The History
page mentions the firm’s strengths. The Contact Us page mentions the
firm’s history. The News page lets us easily contact the lawyer
featured in a given story. The pages for each partner have links to news
stories that mention them. This is the way websites should be tied together,
and we have seldom seen it done so well.

Does your Web site’s “About Us” section
accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks
we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential
customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for
us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). Contact us if you’d like to
have your site evaluated—there’s no charge and no obligation.

Today’s example was chosen at random;
CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Tune into the Travel Channel next week to see me on “Mysteries at the Museum." The subject is the Donner Party, that intrepid band of emigrants who were trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains in the winter of 1846-47. You probably know that in addition to my corporate history career, I'm the author of The Perilous Journey of the Donner Party (published by Clarion/Houghton Mifflin, and I'm thrilled to note that it's been in print continuously for 13 years). I sometimes joke that writing this book was excellent preparation for writing organizational histories.

Monday, April 16, 2012

United is one of the world’s largest airlines, with more than 86,000 employees and more than 700 aircraft. Now headquartered in Chicago, its roots are in Boise, Idaho, where in 1926 Varney Air Lines offered the first scheduled airline service in the United States. Varney was purchased by Walter Boeing, who merged his company with Pratt-Whitney in 1929 to form United Aircraft and Transport Company. In 2011, United merged with Continental Airlines.

With its tabs for Media Center and Investor Relations, the website is clearly not aimed at the general public. Contact information for the media and investors is adequate. But given that people sometimes stumble about on the Net, it would be kind to offer a link for past and future fliers to the well-designed Contact page on United.com.

Products/Services: E

The main About Us page is a list of five bulleted points set against a blank white background. They’re good points, but why not show some images? Nothing here entices us to read a page full of small text.

In fact, it’s a major flaw on the UnitedContinentalHoldings.com site that the only images of planes are the ones provided for download on the Media Center. The background on almost every page is a vast expanse of white that does nothing to recall United’s “friendly skies.” The only exception is the Company History page, which instead has a vast expanse of blue-striped clouds.

And about that Company History page: United has had over 80 years of innovative and memorable history. The timeline on the Company History page starts with the year 2010 – yes, 2010. Within the 2 years covered, the events listed are almost all trivial, as for example, “Mileage Plus Elites Get Seating Benefits on Continental.” Who cares?

Timelines written for public consumption need to be reduced to essentials, and readers need to be told why these particular events are noteworthy.

Several of the pages on UnitedContinentalHoldings.com offer a downloadable Fact Sheet. Unfortunately, although there’s plenty of empty space on these pages, we’re not given any teasers about what’s on this fact sheet, so we have no particular reason to exert ourselves to click on it.

Personality: E

The website for UnitedContinentalHolding.com is executed in crisp blue and white, but the content is bland. The Leadership page has a list of names and titles. Click on one and you’re sent to a cookie-cutter bio: education and previous positions. Nowhere is there an indication of where these leaders are moving the company at this turning point in its history.

We have noticed when writing these evaluations that as a heading for About Us pages, “media” is ambiguous. Sometimes it means “Here are mentions of our company in the media,” and sometimes it means “Hey, media people, here’s your information.” On this site it’s the latter. There is no page for mentions of United Continental Holding by the media: another missed opportunity for bringing the company’s best publicity to the fore.

TAKEAWAY

Even on a site aimed at media and investors, About Us pages should make it obvious what the company’s product is and why it’s worth spending our money on.

Does your Web site’s “About Us” section accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). Contact us if you’d like to have your site evaluated—there’s no charge and no obligation.

Today’s example was chosen at random; CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.

United is one of the world’s largest airlines, with more than 86,000 employees and more than 700 aircraft. Now headquartered in Chicago, its roots are in Boise, Idaho, where in 1926 Varney Air Lines offered the first scheduled airline service in the United States. Varney was purchased by Walter Boeing, who merged his company with Pratt-Whitney in 1929 to form United Aircraft and Transport Company. In 2011, United merged with Continental Airlines.

With its tabs for Media Center and Investor Relations, the UnitedContinentalHoldings.com website is clearly not aimed at the general public. Contact information for the media and investors is adequate. But given that people sometimes stumble about on the Net, it would be kind to offer a link for past and future fliers to the well-designed Contact page on United.com.

Products/Services: E

The main About Us page is a list of five bulleted points set against a blank white background. They’re good points, but why not show some images? Nothing here entices us to read a page full of small text.

In fact, it’s a major flaw on the UnitedContinentalHoldings.com site that the only images of planes are the ones provided for download on the Media Center. The background on almost every page is a vast expanse of white that does nothing to recall United’s “friendly skies.” The only exception is the Company History page, which instead has a vast expanse of blue-striped clouds.

And about that Company History page: United has had over 80 years of innovative and memorable history. The timeline on the Company History page starts with the year 2010 – yes, 2010. Within the 2 years covered, the events listed are almost all trivial, as for example, “Mileage Plus Elites Get Seating Benefits on Continental.” Who cares?

Timelines written for public consumption need to be reduced to essentials, and readers need to be told why these particular events are noteworthy.

Several of the pages on UnitedContinentalHoldings.com offer a downloadable Fact Sheet. Unfortunately, although there’s plenty of empty space on these pages, we’re not given any teasers about what’s on this fact sheet, so we have no particular reason to exert ourselves to click on it.

Personality: E

The website for UnitedContinentalHolding.com is executed in crisp blue and white, but the content is bland. The Leadership page has a list of names and titles. Click on one and you’re sent to a cookie-cutter bio: education and previous positions. Nowhere is there an indication of where these leaders are moving the company at this turning point in its history.

We have noticed when writing these evaluations that as a heading for About Us pages, “media” is ambiguous. Sometimes it means “Here are mentions of our company in the media,” and sometimes it means “Hey, media people, here’s your information.” On this site it’s the latter. There is no page for mentions of United Continental Holding by the media: another missed opportunity for bringing the company’s best publicity to the fore.

TAKEAWAY

Even on a site aimed at media and investors, About Us pages should make it obvious what the company’s product is and why it’s worth spending our money on.

Does your Web site’s “About Us” section accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). Contact us if you’d like to have your site evaluated—there’s no charge and no obligation.

Today’s example was chosen at random; CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.

Monday, April 9, 2012

I'm proud to be part of BIO, the Biographers International Organization, and to share the official news of our third annual conference. It'll take place on the campus of USC in Los Angeles, May 18-20. In attendance will be writers, researchers, librarians, editors, agents, and others interested in the art and craft of biography. But it won't be a huge, overwhelming confab. Instead, our conference is the kind where you can meet, with a handshake, most of the people who attend. We're expecting 200 or so attendees. For me it'll be a first-time visit to L.A.

Some highlights:* Optional Friday tours of the Margaret Herrick Library at the Academy of Motion Picture and Arts, the UCLA Film & TV Archive, and/or the Huntington Library * Saturday panels featuring writers, publishers, media specialists, and agents * Sunday Master Classes for writers on YA nonfiction, literary biography, alternatives to traditional pubishing, and how to make research more manageable.

Whether you're a writer, a biography buff, a movie-lover, or just someone who likes being around friendly, creative people—-this conference will be memorable.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Deere & Company, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Moline, Illinois, traces its origins to a cast-steel plow that was created in 1837 by John Deere to make tilling the heavy soil of the Great Plains easier. The distinctive green-and-yellow running-deer logo appears on equipment for agriculture, construction, and forestry, as well as lawn mowers, snow blowers, and other equipment for homeowners. In addition, the company offers financial services such as crop insurance. John Deere’s main About Us page ishere.

OVERALL GRADE: A

The About Us pages on John Deere’s site are easy to navigate and do an excellent job of conveying what the company produces and how it operates. In addition, the pages convey a quiet pride that’s very appealing.

Personality, Products, and Services: A

The main About Us page is straightforward and no-nonsense, like the equipment John Deere produces. Each of the four headings (“Our core values,” “Our leadership,” “Our strategy for success,” “Doing business with us”) comes with a teaser that clarifies what the company does and how it does it. If you got no further than this page, you’d still know the basics about John Deere.

The pages for each of the headings keep the focus on what John Deere produces. The Core Values page, for example, starts by mentioning the company’s founder and relates his values to the present company – not just once, but several times.

In a column at the right of the About Us page is a great teaser for the History page: “Today, Deere & Company is one of the world’s most admired businesses. But in 1837, John Deere, blacksmith and inventor, had little more than a blacksmith shop, a discarded steel saw, and an idea that would help farmers, changing the face of agriculture for all time.” Again, the founder’s principles are shown to be closely related to the present company.

The History page is another winner: options (with teasers) for a Timeline, Past Leaders (eight of the greatest, with their achievements), Trademarks, and the company’s 175th anniversary. We are particularly charmed by the pages that show and comment on John Deere trademarks through the past 175 years. Such an awareness of the company’s heritage and pride in it are all too rare. All these pages have excellent illustrations and on-topic content. They are a model of what properly told history can do for promoting your business today.

Accessibility: A plus

The link to the Contact Us page is buried in small print at the lower right of the About Us page, but it’s a great page, with numerous specific, helpful options. Want to buy equipment? Choose between links to local dealers, online dealers, or the nearest Lowes or Home Depot. Need a part? Look through a parts catalogue. Have a question about a product? Navigate to a manual. Have a question about financing, crop insurance, employment? All the links are there. if your query truly falls under “Other,” the final option on the page is the ubiquitous online contact form, thoughtfully laid out so it’s only a half page long.

TAKEAWAY

An About Us page should convey clearly and immediately what the company offers and what its core values are, and should give options for visitors who want to learn more. In all these respects, John Deere is an excellent model.

Does your Web site’s “About Us” section accurately convey your organization’s history and capabilities? Every two weeks we evaluate one example, grading it in three areas that are key to potential customers: Personality (Who are you?), Products/Services (What can you do for us?), and Accessibility (How can we reach you?). Contact us if you’d like to have your site evaluated—there’s no charge and no obligation.

Today’s example was chosen at random; CorporateHistory.net has no ties to this company.

CorporateHistory.net can help you turn your company history into an effective and beautiful book, DVD, Web site, keynote speech, or campaign. Whether you want to celebrate a company anniversary, honor a retiring CEO, or strategize your corporate storytelling, CorporateHistory.net can help. We believe organizations suffer when their memory erodes, just as people do. Your institutional memory is a stranded asset until you put it to work. Then it becomes a powerful, cost-effective tool for marketing, community relations, and employee pride.Please visit our website:http://www.corporatehistory.net/